YY Takes Flight As China Stocks Get Price Target Increases

China-based YY (YY) was upgraded to a buy and had its price target doubled Thursday on a view that the provider of a live-streaming video platform continues to move in the right direction.

X Nomura analyst Jialong Shi upgraded YY to buy from neutral and raised his price target to 161 from 80. Shi also issued reports on Vipshop Holdings (VIPS), Momo (MOMO) and NetEase (NTES), each of them China based.

YY provides a mobile video streaming platform with 73 million users, and recently introduced social games. It reported third-quarter results in November that soundly beat estimates, as did its revenue guidance for the fourth quarter.

Since the return of YY’s founder, Xueling Li, to the position of chief executive in mid-2017, “YY’s whole ecosystem has improved, reflected by solid monthly active users and revenue growth in the past quarters,” Shi wrote in a research note to clients.

Shi raised his price target on Vipshop Holdings to 19 from 16.50 and maintained a buy rating. Vipshop shares climbed 3.5% to close at 15.67. The company runs e-commerce sites that focus on discount retailing.

Shi also maintained a buy rating on gaming company NetEase, with a price target of 428. NetEase shares were down 2%, near 317.55. The video game publisher saw its U.S. shares spike to a record high in November, two days after reporting better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter

Alibaba (BABA) and other top-rated China stocks took off on Jan. 2, following positive results from a Chinese economic indicator that beat expectations. Alibaba rose 6.5% that day. On Thursday, Alibaba shares were up 0.3% to 184.40.